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Second Half 2015 NYC Investment Sales Report

Welcome to the Real Estate Board of New York’s inaugural Investment Sales Report. This new report compiles and provides insight into investment sales, such as commercial, manufacturing, and multifamily rental properties, throughout the five boroughs. It will be published bi-annually.

Key Findings

New York City investment sales surged in the second half of 2015 compared to the second half of 2014. Total consideration was $34.3 billion, an increase of $8.2 billion, or 31% compared to the second half of 2014. The total number of transactions was 2,901; an increase of 533 transactions, or 23% compared to the second half of 2014.

In the second half of 2015, Manhattan had the largest total consideration, $23.8 billion; followed by Brooklyn with $5 billion. Queens and the Bronx had the largest percentage increases in total consideration, 93% and 76%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2014.

The five largest sale prices in the second half of 2015 were the $5.5 billion sale of the Stuyvesant Town – Peter Cooper Village apartment complex, the $2.4 billion sale of 11 Madison Avenue office building, the $540 million sale of DoubleTree Hotel Suites at 1568 Broadway, the $516 million sale of the top twelve floors of 229 West 43 Street, the New York Times former headquarters, and the $510 million sale of the office building at 575 Lexington Avenue.

Sales Activity By Borough

All the boroughs of New York City, except for Staten Island, saw a year-over-year increase in total consideration in the second half of 2015. Manhattan consideration rose 22% to $23.8 billion; Brooklyn consideration rose 35% to $5 billion; Queens consideration rose 93% to $3.5 billion; and Bronx consideration rose 76% to $1.8 billion, compared to the second half of 2014. The steep rises in total consideration in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx increased their share of total consideration to 30% of the citywide total, compared to 25% in the second half of 2014.

Though total consideration declined by 11% in Staten Island in the second half of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, the percentage increase in the number of transactions was the largest among the five boroughs at 56%, 208 transactions up from 133. The sale with the largest consideration in Staten Island was 165 St. Mark’s Place, a multifamily rental elevator building which sold for $27 million.

The number of transactions in Brooklyn increased by 16% year-over-year to 1,020 in the second half of 2015. The top transaction was a 428,000-square-foot vacant lot at 830 Fountain Avenue, which sold for $190 million. Brooklyn led all boroughs in sales of industrial property, garnering 57% of the citywide consideration of this property type.

In tandem with Queens’s 93% increase in total consideration, Queens saw a 22% increase in transactions to 612 in the second half of 2015. The consideration of office and commercial condominium properties in Queens rose by $572 million to $692 million and by $385 million to $401 million respectively from the second half of 2014. In fact, the largest Queens sale in the second half of 2015 was the $480 million sale of the office building 25-01 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City; followed by the $290 million sale of two retail condominiums in the Skyview Center at 40 College Point Boulevard.

Bronx consideration rose 76% and transactions in the borough increased by 23% to 404 compared to the same period in 2014. The highest sales price in the Bronx was $133 million for a retail property at 184 West 237 Street. The Bronx’s robust activity includes a 69% increase in the total consideration for no elevator residential rental buildings. Bronx walkup consideration reached $540 million in the second half of 2015 after logging $319 million in the same period in 2014. The Bronx accounted for 17% of the city’s total sales for multifamily rental buildings without an elevator in the second half of 2015.